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# Why internet comments are better than vox-pops
- URL: https://interhacktives.mymagic.page/why-internet-comments-are-better-than-vox-pops/
- Published: 2012-11-05T10:33:27.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-03T15:04:39.000Z
- Description: George Arnett on the fatal flaws of vox-pops in on online age.
- Author: georgearnett
- Tags: Audience & Social, comments, daily mail, jimmy kimmel, john robinson, opinion, participation, social media, Twitter, vox pop, #Migrated-1793717950415, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-11-03 14:59

John Robinson blogged a couple of days ago about "[sticking a fork in 'man-on-the-street' interviews](http://johnlrobinson.com/2012/10/sticking-a-fork-in-man-on-the-street-interviews/?utm%5Fsource=rss&utm%5Fmedium=rss&utm%5Fcampaign=sticking-a-fork-in-man-on-the-street-interviews)" aka vox-pops. To take his point a little bit further, this pooling of public opinion feels increasingly outdated now readers can choose the issues they want to comment upon.

Vox-pops contain a degree of fakery, in so far as the person whose thoughts are being filmed/recorded is aware that they need to sound somewhat informed and intelligent. The people in the Jimmy Kimmel clip linked to by Robinson take this to its end-point, offering seemingly informed opinions on an event that never happened.

In my experience of being vox-popped - I was once [quoted in the Daily Mail](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1232527/Unveiled-Worlds-recipe-book-shows-masterchefs-creating-600-YEARS-ago.html?ref=interhacktives.mymagic.page) after attending a medieval food tasting (see the final line), I have been called on to offer opinions on subjects I would not care to comment on. My answer to the Daily Mail journalist on what I thought about the food is tellingly glib.

With internet comments, and I mean that in broadest possible sense with Twitter etc. included, there is a participatory element. The reader wants to add their own voice to the mix and potentially get feedback from the writer. The reader has made a choice to invest their time in your content, not been stopped on the street and had a question forced upon them.

Of course, artificiality - as any ethnographer would tell you - is relative and trolling shows that comments are not always the place to go for genuine opinions. It's also worth saying that [a creative approach to vox-pops can be really effective](https://interhacktives.mymagic.page/content/files/2026/11/newspapers-how-to-make-the-voxpop-worthwhile-again.html). However, my gut instinct is that spurring a reader to comment rather than requesting it on the street is usually a far more effective way of getting them to keep reading your work.